The present invention is directed toward a combined box and resealable bag and more particularly, toward a method for producing a combined box and resealable bag wherein the bag is secured to the outer surface of the box during manufacture.
Foodstuffs such as cereals and the like and numerous other products have been sold in paperboard boxes for many years. Such packaging is desirable since the packages protect the product and stack easily for shipping and for display on shelves for sale and for storage. In order to protect the product from spoilage, the box normally will have a plastic bag or the like in the interior thereof which contains the product. After the box and bag have been opened and the desired amount of product has been removed, the bag is closed, usually by folding the top thereof over upon itself, in order to reseal the same. Such inner bags, however, are frequently difficult to open and almost never reseal effectively.
More recently, products have been proposed wherein the bag is essentially outside of the box rather than inside the same. U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,422, for example, shows a paperboard box inserted into a plastic bag which has a recloseable zippered top. The box is inserted while in its collapsed form and must be manipulated into an open position when it is desired to fill the same. This can create a problem since the entire box is within the bag and it can be difficult to open the box without damaging the bag.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. U.S. 2005/0194386 is directed toward a zipper box cover for resealing paperboard boxes of food products such as cereals or the like. The invention shown in this application is an after market product that resembles a zippered plastic bag at the top but which has an open bottom with an elastic strip around the bottom edge. The bag is intended to fit over the top of an opened box and held in place by the elastic. It does not appear, however, that an effective seal is formed. Furthermore, the consumer must purchase the covers separately.
A similar arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,160,029 and particularly in the embodiment shown in FIG. 9b thereof. However, instead of elastic at the bottom of the bag, the lower edge includes a strip of adhesive. While this may create a better seal in some instances, this occurs only if the bottom of the bag is essentially the same dimensions as the box. Furthermore, as with the bag with the elastic trip, the consumer must purchase these covers separately and must purchase a variety of different size covers.
There is, therefore, a need for a combined box and bag that is capable of effectively resealing the box after it has been opened in order to preserve the freshness of the product therein and which is easily manufactured and convenient for the consumer to use.